2011-07-23

There are many that think that a world without any sort of monetary system would be a much better world. This is the key concept of a Resource Based Economy. It is my opinion that the present monetary system is just a paradigm, a model. Therefore it is subjected to a shift. And a Global Virtual Currency ( not necessarily Bitcoin ) could be a good entry point for the shift to occur. But it needs to be available for everybody for a Resource Based Economy to take place !!

I am working on this. Stay tuned. More to come soon, now I am tired !!

Too many people have died. Too many dreams have been broken. Too many life, of those who have survived, most probably, scarred forever.

WHO did this ?

Apparently a young Norwegian man aged 31, managed to accomplish such a massacre. A man with a lucid mind, yet totally insane. He declared that a man with a believe is stronger that 100,000 people.

YES, IDIOT, THAT IS ABSOLUTELY TRUE !!!!! BUT YOU WERE WEARING A XXXXX GUN TO DELIVERY YOUR BELIEVES TO OTHERS !!!!!

I have decided to change my blog title from "New World Economy" into "Social Innovation" in the hope that I would be able to give my humble contribute to the global change expected and desired by many with my future posts.

OK, I though a lot about the last posts, and I think it all boils down to this.

Facts
Every living system and living ecosystem on Earth is in a state of decline, due to our economic activities. There is no debate about that, every scientific paper published in the last 30 years confirms it. It's abundantly clear that a different approach is to be put in place.

Proposals
I propose we try to approach the problems scientifically, evaluate what causes negative retroactions, try to prevent them through education, non violent and non coercive manners, strive for a dynamic equilibrium with nature, use a systemic approach and adapt our ways of lives so that they are aligned with what the planet can provide, in order to ensure our long term survival.

I am seeing this wrong? (Of course you are going to say yes straight away, but think about it for a few days, then come back and tell me).

Michele1940 Answer:

Well here we have : misaligned incentives, negative externalities that cause negative retro actions. Can't the common cause of all this be called greediness ?

Seeking for a dynamic equilibrium with nature is definitely a good path to follow. Since from nature itself we can actually see that there are no misaligned incentives, no negative externalities and , therefore no greediness. Nature appears to evolve by itself in a way that the whole ecosystem is always in a state of development ( evolution ) rather than declining.

Economic activities are not a natural process. But, by all means, are perpetuated by Humans since " Illo Tempore ".

Humans are surely part of the natural ecosystem of this planet. And surely denote a much higher degree of awareness as compared to any other natural kingdom. Also they denote a freewill that allows them, for example, to elaborate economic activities able to "alter" the whole ecosystem.

In seeking for this "miraculous" to happen, that we can all live a sustainable life by better rationing all available resources and bla bla bla, we should not forget, in my opinion, that this freewill, is applicable also to the individuals. Therefore making each of us capable of taking different decisions.

The main problem than, melts down to a matter of awareness : if you are not aware that you are doing something wrong, how can you possibly decide to do it in a different way ?

The above is my attempt to give a sort of "scientific" explanation. But I would have preferred a more philosophical one

2011-07-07

These are two abstracts taken from two different articles posted on Twitter by :

@ViewsHound & @bitcoinmedia

Thanks to both for shearing this.

"A politico named Charles Schumer wants to evaluate, regulate or shut down Bitcoin because “The only method of payment for illegal purchases is an untraceable peer-to-peer currency known as Bitcoins.” [Quoted]@ViewsHound

"Maybe you want to avoid bank interchange fees, or perhaps avoid tracking altogether because your payment is for something illegal, or because you're a particular private person. Or perhaps you just think that the world currency regime is going to collapse and you see Bitcoin as a technological salvation. " [Quoted]@bitcoinmedia (original article was different)

Is it legal to sell key to activate Windows XP Professional Edition or for any other software ?

In addition those key codes can be found for free easily. Looks more like a scam to me.

I have nothing personal at all against bitcoinharbor, which I consider to be an excellent idea, but better check if the advertisers are actually doing this according to legislation or not. We do not want people to think like the two abstracts above. Do we ?

I might be wrong on my assumpion and, in case, I apologise with bitcoinharbor

2011-07-06

There are a lot of talk going on around the world about virtual currency such as Bitcoins and others.

Many are arguing that virtual currency is a reality and that it's here to stay. I personally agree with this proposition but virtual currency shouldn't be used as an alternative store of value asset only.

Bitcoin is probably the most known and talked virtual currency in these days. From what we can see in the exchange markets, that have been created to trade Bitcoin, there is a lot of daily activity in the trading environment.

What we cannot see is a similar activity in the retail environment either for on-line or real world transactions. Aside from a few examples, this virtual currency does not seem to be taking off.

What are the reasons for this ? Well there are many.

First of all, aside from the early adapters , "mining" Bitcoin for the individual has become a difficult task.
This means that if you want to have some of this Bitcoin , you can exchange them for your fiat currency on the exchange markets. So you have to take some of your stored "real money" and use them to store them again into Bitcoin. Unless, of course, you have a real intention to use this Bitcoin to buy something that you like and you need/want to buy.

Second, why do you have to convert your "real money" into Bitcoin if you need/want to buy something ? Because Bitcoin allows you and the seller to have a cost free transaction in the same way you would have if you would hand over your cash money to the vendor. In addition handling cash money is also a cost both for you and the vendor.

Third, is the vendor giving you any additional advantage if you pay in Bitcoin like, for example, a small discount ? Not that I am aware of. But might be possible that same are doing it. What I know for sure is that if you pay with real cash money instead of your credit card, you have a very high possibility to get a small discount if you dare asking for it.

Fourth, there are the exchange markets that makes the conversion rate change and it is difficult for you and the vendor to forecast its future value. You may exchange your "real money" into Bitcoin today or you can accept a payment in Bitcoin as a vendor today at a fixed current rate and find out a few days later that the value of Bitcoin has dropped. Or it has increased. This uncertainty, surely complicates the matter even more. Unless you see into Bitcoin a form of investment in the hope that its value will go sky high someday.

Many might argue that even your "real money" are subject to the same process described above.
All fiat money of course are subjected to inflation and deflation. And the conversion rate between them vary daily. Some might also argue that fiat money might collapse and that you would end up having a bank account filled up with numbers that have no purchase value at all.

So, it seems that what we need for a virtual currency to become a usable currency is a sort of stability of its value. In order to accomplish this, we have to reduce the trading and increase the actual use of our beloved virtual currency.

There are many that think that a world without any sort of monetary system would be a much better world. This is the key concept of a Resource Based Economy. It is my opinion that the present monetary system is just a paradigm, a model. Therefore it is subjected to a shift. And a Global Virtual Currency ( not necessarily Bitcoin ) could be a good entry point for the shift to occur. But it needs to be available for everybody for a Resource Based Economy to take place !!

2011-07-03

Mining does not bring any sort of benefit for the individual. Therefore you need to buy using fiat money BTCs and at the end of the game someone needs to sell BTcs for fiat money. This is far from being an ecosystem that can survive outside today’s economy which is based on fiat money.

2011-07-01

In Part three, I have presented how the ecosystem of the web currently works. Of course in a very broad fashion....

Here, I would like to move a bit forward explaining how the whole system could be changed.

Any new product, app, partnership that is being presented to the public by the Big Guys, is nothing else but a way to attract more users, keeping the existing ones from migrating to other web based platforms, with the sole intent to generate more and more traffic on their sites. Thus attracting more Ads.

This is absolutely normal for a big publisher like Google or Facebook & CO. They are constantly looking to generate more profit. They need to do this. Among other reasons, they surely need to generate an up trend profit in order to pay the salary to the many thousands of people working for them.

The actual Resource they are benefiting from are, obviously, the USERS of the web !! So Humans.

I studied human behavioural biology, evolutional biology and neuroscience, and I could not find any scientific peer-review publication to support such a claim.

Can you enlighten me and redirect me to the relevant research that suggests such a thing?

Answer by Twitter @Michele1940:

"Human nature" is a phrase that is probably been misunderstood, in this contest at least. Studying Human nature by scientific means only , definitely shuts down the door to real knowledge. Science should be used to determine the anomalies of human behavior in order to bring them to the surface and therefore allowing us to :

1) be aware of them
2) overcome them

In addition, it is not correct to state that something that is part of human nature cannot be fought. In order to understand this, you should start noticing how your emotions differs from what you actually think to be correct. Emotions are actually driving our existence and we are totally unconscious of this process. This is way we are not satisfied with our own life.

You might be unlighted by the reading ( and understanding ) of this book, to begin with.

There's no scientific theory on whether you should use nuclear power plants or solar panels. You are comparing science with politics and morality and that's absurd. You might think that you haven't entered the realms of morality and politics but you HAVE. Maybe you will disagree on this subject, but then I must conclude that your reasoning is blocked by you sect/cult.

Science says something like: nuclear power plants harvest a lot of energy per mass of uranium, and create nuclear waste. Solar cells are created through a process that contaminates a lot of liters of water and releases a lot of CO2, and harvest energy from the sun with a 15-20% efficiency. Science, and the scientific method, does NOT tell you which option to choose. Science just shows you how nature works, and it's you that have to decide how to apply that knowledge to fullfill your dreams/objectives/morality.

Science doesn't tell you if you should gun somebody. Science just tells you that the bullet will hit that person at a certain velocity and it will probably provoke his death. Should you shoot that somebody? should you build that bridge? Should you use currencies or a resource based economy? Should you create prisons? Should you live in a planned economy society? Science won't decide any of that for you. Science will (maybe) make some predictions on the result of your decision, but making the decision is absolutely out of the realms of science, and of the scientific method.

MY COMMENT TO THE "FIGHT" :

Well, from one extreme to the other.....what a fight !!

"There is no freedom"----------->"You are a member of a cult/set". I am not going to comment on this dispute.

"We all are subject to the laws of nature and the common reality we share"------------>"Science just shows you how nature works, and it's you that have to decide how to apply that knowledge to fulfill your dreams/objectives/morality" .This I like and I am going to comment.....

Of course we are all subject to Nature laws, everybody can agree on this. We, as individuals, are part of a whole and contribute, with our thoughts that generate emotions and feelings that transforms into actions, to a much greater plan of which we are not even able to perceive its existence.

The common reality we share, is thus created by the interactions of our thoughts and, our thoughts, are related to our own "little Worlds". Therefore we all have different thoughts that are linked to the reality we have lived in and continue to live right now. Of course not all the thoughts are different. This is easy to understand

To understand how nature works by means of scientific methods, is very important and meaningful. And It is true that this knowledge, if properly applied, would be useful to fulfill your ambitions.

But, what are these ambitions that we have ? Surely all of us have different goals and different levels of personal satisfaction, but if we scream off all the surface and go deep into the real meaning of our ambitions, we would see that we are all searching for the same thing : Loved.

This might sound strange to most of you but try to suspend your judgment for a while in order to follow this little piece of knowledge that I am sharing with you.

In order to be Loved, we should first learn how to Love. This is a "spiritual law ". Actually the most important one. References can be found in the New testament when Jesus said to his disciples : " I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another". John 13:34. There are others of course.

The word Love, does not have to be misunderstood as a term that describes a "sentiment", this is not the case. By Love it is intended a total let go of our material interests in order to follow the Universal Evolutive Plan.

In order to do this, Freedom is essential. Cannot be otherwise. Saying that there is no freedom and that we are all subject to the law of nature, my dear Ligthrider, it is not possible since one thing exclude the other ! But I might have missed your point on this and if this is the case, I apologize.

"Money is only important in a society when certain resources for survival must be rationed and the people accept money as an exchange medium for the scarce resources. Money is a social convention, an agreement if you will. It is neither a natural resource nor does it represent one. It is not necessary for survival unless we have been conditioned to accept it as such."[Quoted]

Absolutely True ! In the article the author advocates that in a Resources Based Economy, all the Earth Resources become a common heritage for all humans, this making the monetary system no more needed and thus allowing a generalized growth for all people that would experience a better ( enhanced ) life - style. In addition, he states that : " our practice of rationing resources through monetary methods is irrelevant and counter productive to our survival." [Quoted]This rationing comes from the unproper use of the available resources that must be rationed since we are wasting them.

What else could be more appropriate for our world survival ? My hat off to you, Author.

Now, Human Intellect is also a natural resource. Most of the times it is , unfortunately, rationed through money and wasted even thought Human Intellectual is not a Scarce Resource.Could be argued that Human Intellect is not a resource for survival, but I think this is a far fetched hypothesis.

The whole thing is therefore addressed to a better use of the available resources promoting thus a MUTUAL BENEFIT for all people.

I haven't deepened my knowledge of the Venus project to such an extend that I can see if they have a starting point for the whole project, any entry. Most probably they have and they are already operating it ( would be glad if someone points my in the right direction about this matter so that will save me a lot of time ).

My project, instead, has a very clear starting point : the world wide web and more specifically the USERS of the web. All of us.

Good Theories are always welcome, but they need to be practical and applicable, possibly in the Near Future.

As I have already said, I am working, with a very restricted team of people, on a new web based project that would involve actively the Users. The project aims, at first , to gain control of the web by the users by re balancing the economy of it. Than goes on and on......

Anyone interested in sharing some thoughts, can contact me privately at michele.intertex2000@gmail.com.

Here is an abstract from a discussion taken from forum.bitcoin.orgIt is not my intention to endorse BTC but it seams to be the closest thing to our project up to a certain point. My interest in BTC is merely focused on the way it has managed to spread in such a vast community, creating even speculative trade markets.

I apoligise with the authors of this discussing since I did not ask them the permission to use it. But being on a pubblic forum, I think they would not mind.

"The money comes from the effort of their mining and the value in the blocks they've mined. It's the same as when someone mine's gold -- the value comes from the effort of their mining and the rarity of gold. BitCoins don't need to be backed because they're scarce. You only need to back something that's not scarce. (That's why gold itself doesn't need to be backed.)" [Quoted]

My poo is scarce. There is a limited supply of it produced over time. Therefore my poo is a valuable currency that need not be backed by anything.

Realistically, Bitcoins have value not because they are scarce, but because there is demand for them.

This demand is created because Bitcoins are cool, and you can have fun buying things with them, and playing with all the Bitcoin-related Web charts and the open source software and the crypto.

You could fork Bitcoin right now, and have your own identical system, and the coins in it would be just as rare and difficult to produce as Bitcoins are. They would also be worthless, unless you could make them cool, and make it possible for people to have fun doing things with them.

Bitcoins, like stocks, are a "psychological market." When stock is issued, the company gets its money from the initial sale, and no matter what happens to the stock value, the company never has to give the money back.

You can't do anything with the company, unless you have control, so for the average stock owner having less than 51%, the stock trades in its own little world, supported only by the belief that its value bears some relationship to the value of the company whose name is printed on the financial statement.

Bitcoins are like that. Should people ever become bored with Bitcoins, or not be able to do things with them they find satisfying, like thumb their nose at the government while buying Alpaca Socks, they will quickly become worthless.

2011-06-26

In Part Two, we have established that if we could persuade web users to start using the web in a more efficient and focused way, this would be a mean to start a shift into the web ecosystem due to the fact that users could "persuade" web publishers to change the way they operate according to a specific goal that needs be of MUTUAL BENEFIT to users, publishers and all those other "actors" that are actually bringing money into the ecosystem itself .

The Mutual Benefit mentioned above, is the actual link with Economy which I have alluded to in the previous posts of this series.

2011-06-25

"We must increase the 'efficiency' of the key systems enabling "civilization"".

And surely the system would gain efficiency from replacing conventional banking.

But can Bitcoin actually achieve this goal ?

I have nothing against BTC but I see it has serious limitations to perform its function(i.e. a p2p version of electronic cash able to allow online transactions without going through a
financial institution)on a GLOBAL TRADE scale.

The philosophy that lays be
hind Bitcoin, it is addressed to find an alternative way of payment for COMMERCE ON THE INTERNET that would cut off double-spending on transactions. Therefore BTC is just a mechanism "to make payments over a communications channel without a trusted party".

This sound very nice but to me looks applicable only to certain kind of trades. I cannot possibly see this mechanism being applied and a global trade scale.

One limitation of course is a good escrow for buyers. Once the BTC transaction is made, it is irreversible. The higher is the amount of the transaction, the more you as a buyer need a good escrow in case the goods or service you receive is not up to what it was supposed.

2011-06-24

Well it seams that I have to make a few things clear before proceeding. I apologise if my English sometimes cannot be up to the level it should be to discuss things of this kind but I am sure I will manage to get to the point (somehow).

First of all , I would like to address you guys to my previous posts NEW WORLD ECONOMY - PART ONE & Bitcoin Paradigm.

Now, what is the main purpose of BTC ? Satoshi Nakamoto, presenting the project, writes as follows:

Abstract. A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online
payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a
financial institution. Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main
benefits are lost if a trusted third party is still required to prevent double-spending.
We propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network.

2011-06-23

" A Paradigm Shift ". This is the most suitable definition for what is actually going on in the "global village".

But I have something to say about the fact that Bitcoin is a paradigm itself.

For those who are not familiar with the word Paradigm:

A Paradigm is a pattern or model, and if it is later discarded and a different pattern or
model replaces it, we call this process a “paradigm shift.” An example of this is
the Ptolemaic system of the universe in which the earth is at the center of the solar
system, which was replaced by the heliocentric system of Copernicus.

Let's make it more simple.

There is something established that we take for granted. We keep on using it every day. By time we realize that there are some anomalies. If we stop thinking and we analyze these anomalies, we would eventually come to the conclusion that what was taken for granted is wrong and that there is a different way of doing.

The actual "shift" happens when the majority of the people agrees on the new way of doing which of course needs to be demonstrated to be true and workable.

It is worth noticing that The Ptolemaic paradigm of the universe was not replaced so much
by the fact that it was wrong but by the fact that anomalies observed eventually caused the entire paradigm to shift to a new one. A new pattern or model.

Therefore, the way financial transactions are carried out today is our Pattern and observations shows that there are anomalies. But this does not means that the old pattern is wrong at all!! It simply means that nowadays (and only nowadays ), transactions can be done in a different and more efficient way. Thus, we have the paradigm shift.

Bitcoin being merely a tool that might implement the shift.

It is my opinion that the shift might occur but not in the near future and that Bitcoin "economy" needs several adjustments before it could become a catalyst in this contest.

Again we see that the whole thing because of users interacting with the web. What Google is trying to do is quite clear to me but the "VAST MAJORITY OF THE REVENUE REMAINS IN THE HEAD" which means that to make money on the web you must adress your products to a very large number of users.

2011-06-22

This is the first of a series of posts I intend to share in order to get you guys on board !

The Basic Staff.

The WWW is something amazing. You can virtually reach anybody anywhere and share your thoughts or opinions with them.

We have now gone a long way away from it's original purpose. At the same time, farsighted people, have managed to crated a fortune out of the WWW. And still others will do the same.

All of as, so far , have been attracted by the web and its always growing content. We have learned to use the web in a way which is suitable for each of us adding and editing every now and than new features created by others. I would put this under High Entertainment Factor.

While we are being entertained and having fun, we barely manage to see what is actually going on. But those who create the entertainment do !!

It is like living in a dream where all we need and want, we can find and use mostly for free. This is really good. Not joking !!

If you would stop for a while having fun and start thinking, you could possibly see with your own eyes what is really going on : you are getting entertained by the www !!

Same thing happened with Television which is now suffering a huge shift of traffic in favor of the internet and its growing content.

Shift of traffic means users getting more attracted by the Interned than Television.

As you well know, all the publisher on the Internet need money to survive and to create new entertainment for you. These money comes of course from Advertising. Again these money coming from Ads, are attracted by the huge potential of the Internet in terms of addressing the right Ads to the right people. Targeting.

So the www is basically a box filled with innumerable objects that billions of people, like you and me, use everyday for various purposes. Being in a box we are trapped like a fish in a fish farm !!
But we don't realize this since we are left to choose the objects we like and use them as we please. We can actually swim from any side of our big box freely. This is absolutely true.

Hey, there are a lot of people fishing into this box !! Did you know ?!?

So, what do we need to do ?...............Stay tuned for part two coming soon!!

This is my first post and my first blog, so please be kind until I get used to it :))

Nearly one year ago, I have began to think on how all the web user's should have any sort of benefit from the use of the internet. I mean, any "tangible benefit ", something into which users' could actually put their teeth on.

There are many huge corporations making billions of $ by selling Advertising on their platforms, which is nothing to complain about, but the real engine of the whole business are, of course, Users, ALL OF US using the web every day.

In return we all get nice platforms or apps which we choose to use because they allow us to express our self or because they are of interest to us. So far so good !

Well, we all know that the web is a free place where anybody can present or perform whatsoever and even making a profit out of it. Basically the more users you get the most is the profit you make and your company is worth.

The whole ecosystem is sustainable until there are people ( users) willing to buy on line, register to a service, clikking on an ads banner etc....This means, as I have mentioned before, that the whole thing is powered by USERS alone. No USERS No Party !!

So, I thought, is there any possibility to let users gain something from all this ? Any way to clear off all the rubbish and get only those things we ( as individuals ) are really interested in ?
And, on the other hand, what are we really interested in when we are on line ?

The answers I have formulated for the above questions, eventually, drove me into a very interesting field, almost unexplored ( and there are many reasons for this ).

Challenging the actual system is not as difficult as it might sound since WE are the living souls of the whole system. We just need to wake up and realize that WE can control the whole system and make it work the way WE want it to work.

I will end this first post here and I will wait for any comment for a few days before posting again.

Signed : Michele1940

p.s. Comes to mind Nikola Tesla that was banned from the energy industry once he had found what he was looking for : a way to supply energy to everybody in the world for FREE !!